Recovering from a cold backup using RMAN

Posted by John Hallas on March 22, 2010

These are basic notes that I am using when taking copies of databases that are being used for performance testing work and on which we will be performing regular regressions. I prefer writing to disk if we have sufficient space as no time is lost in waiting for tape drive availability and also know that I don’t have to worry about being past the retention data and the backup being deleted. There are 4 databases involved in this test and I prefer to close them all down, startup mount, backup to disk and then make them all available again.

It is a good habit to create the recovery script at the same time as the backup is created and leave a copy in the same directory as the RMAN backup pieces as it aids recovery. Both the channel command and the use of the TAG command both help in this.

Technically this is not a cold backup as the database is open, although not in use, which is why a resetlogs is required at the end. A proper cold backup is to shut the database down and take image copies of the database files and replace them as part of a restore.